A little cyber car show... Just A Car Geek focuses on unusual, rare and interesting cars. Lots of opinion, links to cool and interesting sites, useless & useful trivia, cars for sale, news, a few stories and more... This is not your typical car blog...
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Friday, June 19, 2009

In no way do I believe that I can predict which cars will become more valuable in the future. I'm just not that smart or intuitive. My philosophy is that you should buy a car you like and drive the hell out of it. If it becomes more valuable during your ownership, that's great. If the value of the car drops, that's fine, too. It doesn't really matter, as long as you were happy with the car while you owned it.

Having said that, if someone put a gun to my head and told me to name a few cars that will be worth more in 5 years than they are now, the Datsun 280ZX Turbo would be one of my picks.

In its day, the 280ZX Turbo was one of the fastest cars sold in the US. I featured a 1981 280ZX owned by Just A Car Geek reader, Richard, back in April. There are some slight, mostly cosmetic, differences between his 1981 and the 1983 being offered on eBay, but all of what I (and Richard) wrote about his car holds true for this one. (Click here to see the post - Then click on the link to Richard's pictures of the car)

So why do I think the 280ZX Turbo will increase in value? Well... There weren't many made in relation to the normally aspirated 280ZX. Many have been trashed or wrecked, so there aren't many left. As mentioned, it was one of the fastest cars sold in its day. It still has good parts support. Japanese sports cars have been under appreciated and under valued for a long time. In my (not very smart or intuitive) mind those are the ingredients needed for a price increase.

Japanese build quality has always been first rate. The same can't be said for all the materials they used 20+ years ago. Rust, especially in cars driven in the snow belt, was common and the interiors did not hold up well. The car listed on eBay has had the interior redone and the body restored. There are some tasteful body modifications done; the addition of European style bumpers, air dam and rear skirt. Some work has been done to the drivetrain, although it didn't get a complete rebuild.

2 comments:

Looks like Just A Car Geek is turning over to the dark side with his posts on these 80's Japanese motors! That is a nice looking ride, pay no attention to the miles, these engines were built to last, plus the are cheap/easy to rebuild. The blue interior is the only thing I would have trouble with, but at least its not red, and at only $5.5k its a pretty good deal.

Continuing on with Japanese motors it would be interesting to see if you could find a nice late 80's Mazda 323 AWD Turbo. I have looked around for years and found none, rare as hens teeth!

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